The use of touch-sensitive surfaces as input devices for computers and other electronic computing devices has increased significantly in recent years. Exemplary touch-sensitive surfaces include touch pads and touch screen displays. Electronic computing devices such as portable multifunction devices often contain information associated with a plurality of applications. Users of portable multifunction devices often use search functions to find information on the portable multifunction device. For example, a user may need to find information on a contact, including the phone number of the contact and an appointment with the contact and any documents associated with the contact. Once the user has received results that correspond to the search, the user often wants full access to the application that is associated with a search result, and then often wants to return to the search results.
But conventional methods for performing these searches are cumbersome and inefficient. For example, using a search that requires the user to separately perform a search for each application is tedious and creates a significant cognitive burden on a user. Similarly, using a search that does not provide the user with full access to the application when the user selects a result or does not allow the user to easily return to the list of results is also tedious and creates a significant cognitive burden on a user. In addition, conventional methods take longer than necessary, thereby wasting energy. This latter consideration is particularly important in battery-operated devices.
Accordingly, there is a need for multifunction devices with faster, more efficient methods and interfaces for search. Such methods and interfaces reduce the cognitive burden on a user and produce a more efficient human-machine interface. For battery-operated multifunction devices, such methods and interfaces conserve power and increase the time between battery charges.